On the Upcoming Obama Speech from the Border, Immigration Reform, Etc.
MEMORANDUM
TO: Media
FROM: Ali Noorani
Executive Director of the National Immigration Forum
RE: The President’s Speech and the United States Border
On Tuesday, May 10, 2011, President Barack Obama will travel to El Paso, Texas to deliver a speech on immigration reform and the United States border. Next week’s appearance at the border region comes after a series of high profile and important developments around immigration reform. This is the 4th week in a row the President has publicly engaged the issue of immigration reform; all signs point to a sustained campaign with cabinet members, senior staff, business, labor, and Hispanic groups to make the case for reform.
There will be several components of comprehensive immigration reform legislation, and an attempt to achieve true “border security” will undoubtedly be included. However, it is important to dissect what “border security” truly means. For years, Congress has spent enormous – and steadily increasing – sums of money at the U.S. Border. What is needed from any attempt to achieve comprehensive border security are focused, smart policies that use our tax dollars wisely, enhance the border region’s ability to act as an engine of trade and commerce, and addresses the nature of security threats.
Unprecedented manpower, infrastructure, and technology for border security efforts have been deployed in the last decade—the vast majority of which have been directed at surveillance and manpower between ports of entry on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Meanwhile, apprehensions along the Southwest border have dropped from 1.6 million in 2000 to 448,000 in 2010. According to a published report, Border Patrol agents are literally falling asleep on the job from boredom. Many agents spend hours on end sitting in patrol vehicles and waiting for illegal crossings that just aren’t happening – at least not nearly as frequently as a decade ago. In fact, illegal crossings are at a low not seen since the 1970s.
In just the last four years, spending on border security has ballooned to more than $50 billion—an unprecedented amount billed to the American taxpayers that is neither justified nor properly accounted for. Annual spending by Customs and Border Protection has more than doubled since 2005, from $5.4 billion to more than $11 billion this year. The Border Patrol’s budget alone is now more than $3.5 billion—nearly ten times what it was in the mid-1990s—even though illegal crossings have dipped below 1972 levels due, in large part, to a faltering economy.
Incredible progress has been made on the border. But, to travel the homestretch to real security and prosperity, the President and Congress must come together to fix our broken immigration system.
What Border Security Means
Achieving border security will require the President and policy makers to take a hard look at existing programs and determine whether they work. Border Security means focusing our fiscal resources on the most effective investments and the greatest threats, such as fighting transnational crime, improving infrastructure and stopping the flow of illicit money, drugs and contraband at our ports of entry. Targeted use of assets and manpower that focuses on ports of entry will save taxpayers billions of dollars and provide growth opportunities for border businesses and our nation’s economy.
Effective border security policies efficiently use taxpayer resources. Immediately, Congress and the President should shift spending to our long neglected ports of entry to intercept illegal activity and to support the trade and tourism of the border region. With more than $1 billion in trade and commerce coming across our southern borders every day, and $1.5 billion at our northern borders, we need border security policies that focus not just on immigration enforcement, but on restoring parity to Customs and Border Protection’s other mission: trade and commerce. Staffing at ports of entry must be commensurate with the reality of the ports’ role in preventing smuggling, both in and out of the U.S., and promoting travel and trade. The GAO estimates that 6000 new personnel are needed at ports of entry, not between them.
What Border Security Doesn’t Mean
Border security DOES NOT mean throwing more money at the problem. Border policies should reflect the diversity of America’s borders and tailor funding allocations to state and local needs, and they should be aligned with the nature of the threats we face. Congress should conduct more formal consultations with diverse border stakeholders, especially law enforcement, to identify what programs and resources are truly needed from the federal government and ignore the false and sensationalist rhetoric coming from some members of Congress about the security of the U.S. border. Their heated rhetoric inevitably comes with a price: more wasteful, untargeted governments spending that fail to achieve increased levels of security.
The President’s Reinvigorated Attempt to Achieve Comprehensive Immigration Reform Is Good News, But…
The President should not wait for Congressional leaders. He should introduce his own vision for reform and lay out a legislative strategy to get it done. We would like the President to use the full power and resources of his office, and the bully pulpit, to push comprehensive immigration legislation forward. The White House has indicated that it intends to deploy the cabinet, and that the President will personally engage. That is a good start. However, except for a brief period during last fall’s attempt to achieve the DREAM Act, the President hasn’t shown strong leadership on immigration reform, something he promised to do in 2008. The President should go further, convene key leaders of bother parties, and present his vision for reform.
While Comprehensive Reform Moves in Congress, The President Can Act Immediately to Fix Some Aspects of the Broken Immigration System.
The President can make changes now to help to alleviate the crisis. He should:
· Allow extreme hardship waivers of three- and ten-year bars filed by spouses and parents of U.S. citizens to be decided in the United States to preserve family unity.
· Wisely deploy enforcement resources including prioritizing enforcement resources so that DREAM eligible students are not deported and so that hard working families aren’t ensnared in the detention and deportation disaster fostered by our broken immigration system.
· Halt the expansion of the Secure Communities program until the Administration has created the internal safeguards and accountability needed to ensure that it focuses on the worst criminals and protects everyone’s civil rights.
– Immediately end the wasteful, fatally flawed “287(g)” program.
For more information, please visit: http://immigrationforum.org/research/border-enforcement
· Securing the Border without Breaking the Bank: Border Security Spending Principles for the 112th Congress: http://bit.ly/gTysob
· Operational Control at the Border: More than Words: http://bit.ly/OperationalControl
· Immigration Enforcement Fiscal Review: http://bit.ly/FiscalReview
· Backgrounder on Southwest Border Security Operations http://bit.ly/BorderSecurityOperations
· Why Invest in Ports of Entry? http://bit.ly/portsofentry
· Recording of Background Briefing on Border Policy ahead of the President’s visit to the border http://bit.ly/jfwg3U